Observing Log for Mike Durkin
8/31/2013 about 10:00PM-2:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 5/10, Seeing: 2/5
Temperature: about 70-80 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
More or less a repeat of last night. I tried to do photometry of Nova Del 2013
and P Cyg. I took some images of P Cyg, but clouds came in before I could get
the nova.
8/30/2013 about 10:00PM-3:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 6/10, Seeing: 3/5
Temperature: about 70-80 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
I wanted to do some DSLR photometry of Nova Del 2013 and P Cyg, but clouds were a big issue all
night. I did eventually get some patches of clear sky for P Cyg, but no luck
with the nova.
8/24/2013 about 8:30PM-11:30PM
Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center, Jones Beach, NY
Transparency: 10/10, Seeing: 4/5
Temperature: about 60-70 degrees
Equipment: Meade 16 inch Dob and Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
The weather forcast for this evening was considered very good, so the
AOS got permission to use Nature Center on an unplanned day.
First "field test" of the 16 inch Dob, and using the new base which worked
very well. I noticed that once I used my 17mm eyepiece that my stars were
significantly deformed, indicating bad collimation. I was lucky that Ed W.
had a collimator and he fixed it for me. After that the views were much
better.
Observed M8, M4, M20, M17 and M26. There were also various other clusters
I observed around Sagittarius that I did not identify. The nebulosity in
M20 was subtle, and I could not clearly make out the dark lanes of the
"Trifid". The nebula of M17 and M8 were very obvious, although I could
not easily make out the dark lane in M8.
I was somewhat amued that when I looked at Arcurus in the Dob that
I saw diffraction spikes.
I had forgotten to bring a finder scope and a step stool for the Dob.
I showed the Nova in Delphinus to Liz S., Ed W. and Wendy L. They
were able to see it in the finder scope of one of their scopes.
I finished up by taking DSLR photometry measurements of AC Her and
P Cyg.
The only thing I did not get to do was some visual variable star
observing, but a very good night over all.
8/23/2013 about 11:00PM-4:30AM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing: 4/5
Temperature: about 60-70 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
I started out trying to do DSLR photometry of AC Her, but I only got about 8-9 good
images before broken clouds came in and I took a break for a couple of hours.
Later on the sky cleared a bit, but it was a bit too late to go back to AC Her,
so I just got a DSLR measurement of P Cyg.
After that I tried some visual measurements of Nova del 2013, W Cyg, T Vul, and
V1339 Cyg.
Again my estimate of the Nova is significantly brighter than everyone else's. I'm not
sure why unless I am seeing the brightness of comp star 57 incorrectly?
8/21/2013 about 10:45PM-11:00PM
Forest Hills, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 70-80 degrees
Equipment: 10x50 binoculars.
A quick observation of Nova Delphinus 2013.
I did notice however that my visual estimate was much brighter than everyone
else at that time.
8/20/2013 about 8:00PM-9:00PM
Highline Park, Chelsea, NYC, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 70-80 degrees
Equipment: various small scopes owned by AAA
Went to a Meetup which was a public outreach session held by AAA.
After some pople showed up around 7:30, I took a quick look at
the moon and Venus, which was very low to the horizon and no phase
could be determined.
Light pollution was very sever at this location
8/19/2013 about 11:45PM-12:00AM
Forest Hills, NY
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 70-80 degrees
Equipment: 10x50 binoculars.
A quick observation of Nova Delphinus 2013, despite the nearly full moon.
8/17/2013 about 9:30-10:15PM
Lebanon, NH
Transparency: 8/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 55-65 degrees
Equipment: 10x50 binoculars.
First observation of Nova Delphinus 2013 at about magnitude 5.0
I wanted to observe a bit more, but there was a lot of people coming and going.
8/12/2013 about 8:00PM-1:00AM
Morgan Arboretum, Montreal, Quebec
Transparency: 2-9/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 60-75 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT, Stellarvue 70mm, and 10x50 binoculars.
On a trip to Canada.
The RASC (anlgophone) held a public outreach session for the Perseid meteor shower at
Morgan Arboretum, a park all the way on the west end of the Island.
The even started out looking very bad, which almost total cloud coverage of slighly
broken clouds, and at one point, we even felt a few raindrops. However at about 10 PM,
The sky in the west started to clear and eventually conditions turned out to be very good.
I observeed maybe about 3-4 total meteors. Based on the crowd reaction, I'd say there
about 15-25 meteors observed total during the 2-3 hours we were there.
I took one "fun" shot of the Big Dipper above the Bellevue Observatory, a scope and dome
run by the RASC, similar to what the AOS has out in Custer.
I did my usual DSLR measurement of P Cyg. I did an eyeball measurement of α Her. And then also measured Z UMa, τ4 Ser, and V450 Aql.
At one point a person came up and asked about the 70mm scope and I showed him M13 in Hercules. Which looked OK, but really needed a bigger scope.
8/4/2013 about 11:30PM-12:30AM
Locust Valley, NY
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
DSLR photometry of P Cyg.
8/4/2013 about 1:30AM-3:00AM
Locust Valley, NY
Equipment: Hutech modified Canon Rebel XT
DSLR photometry of P Cyg and AC Her.
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